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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  9. That must've been a ________________.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. rush — to hurry
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. scale — size or range
  4. game — wild animals
  5. spell — a short time
  6. rush — hurry
  7. chair — a leader
  8. bark — a dog's sound
  9. rush — a thrill
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. bark — to shout
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. row — a line
  14. track — a path
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. scale — in music
  17. track — a song
  18. spell — letters
  19. game — a match
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. row — to paddle
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. track — to keep track
  24. spell — magic

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com